Slashdot Mirror
Need a Friend? Rent One Online
crimeandpunishment writes "Housewives, college students, and others are working for a website that charges users an hourly rate for their companionship. No, it's not an escort service — at least it's not one 'with benefits.' It's a site called rentafriend.com, that's trying to carve out a niche in the 'everything's available online' business world. The seven-month-old site, patterned after hugely successful sites in Asia, has nearly 2,000 members who pay either a monthly or yearly fee to check out the pictures and profiles of more than 160,000 potential pals." I thought Craigslist had already cornered the market on renting a friend for an hour or two.
Or you could simply add a bunch of random people of Facebook and see how many accept your friend request.
And my mom was paying them.
Is it just me, or is this creepy beyond belief?
It's not just you.
This service isn't anything to do with being "friends". It's essentially a counselling service where anyone can volunteer to be a paid listener, and people who need someone to either talk to or simply to be there so they can overcome their social issues of going somewhere alone can pay them.
I actually think it's a good idea *if* the people on both sides of the transaction are being honest about what they want out of it.
I'm no social butterfly, but when I'm alone out of town I have no problem going to a bar and finding random people to talk to. It's not hard, people. Beer helps.
Whale
But when you reach a certain age, it becomes harder and harder to meet new friends. I used to have tons of them, but then I moved to a new city and have almost none here. And if you're too old for the clubs, don't have a family, and aren't religious or a sports fan--you're pretty much SOL in many places. I can see where something like this would be appealing.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I don't know, kind of creapy, but cheaper than a therapist (I'm assuming didn't look at pricing). And probably better for your social life than complaining to your actual friends all the time. I wonder how many people just use this thing as a sounding board to talk out their problems. I don't think anybody really needs to pay for friends on the internet. There's tons of forums and chat channels on just about any topic you can think of. However, most of these places, as in real life, people will start to ignore you if you complain too much. But I wonder if having a person who is paid to sit there and listen to your ranting would be helpful to people, and would accomplish a large amount of what therapists are paid to do.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
o it would be worth $30-$40 for someone to show you around for a couple of hours.
In vegas, I'm told the cab drivers perform this function. Seriously.
And, on the internet, theres a wiki for everything:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Creepy is what the 4chan crowd are going to do to these poor people, and then post screen caps for LOLs. I hope they're well paid for what they're probably about to go thru.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Do they come with a car and is it cheaper than movers?
Those two should be friends.
Assuming this is strictly online (I can't be bothered with reading TFA) then it sounds like a very clever scam or an awesome Turing competition with unwitting participants.
Like what..Medical? Long Term Disability?
WTF? Over?
We in the Illuminati are actually getting pretty pissed off just meeting the same of crowd of Hidden Masters, Temple Measurers, Rosicrucians, and members of the Tres. If you're into illumination, secret world domination, and communication with superior beings, post your email and we'll get in touch. Provided of course that you can prove you're female, a virgin, aged between 18 and 21, and have no pesky living close relatives. Oh shit did I really write that?
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
This sounds weird, but it's not that surprising - the pinnacle of the service economy is selling specialized conversation, isn't it? :-)
What I'm really curious is what sort of policies and worker-support practices will emerge in this industry. Without something, it's going to get messy, and quickly.
A therapist who is just listening to you vent is providing a bare minimum sort of service; the real goods happen when they start to challenge you (however subtly) to be more aware of the patterns you're enacting over and over again. Equally importantly are the boundaries that are set - therapists (AAMFT therapists, at any rate) are required to get regular supervision, a sort of meta-therapy.. which is intended as a safeguard in case the therapist gets triggered by the client in some way (e.g. idealizing them, becoming overly invested in their 'progress', irritated by the way the client reminds them of themselves ten years ago or their alcoholic aunt, etc.)
Painful as it is, one of the ways friends help one another is by not putting up with certain behavior - he talks shit all the time, he's always stoned, or whatever it is. Will rent-a-friends have the option of ditching a client? If not, will they just become anxious witnesses, providing support to people who would otherwise realize how intolerable they've become?
Like in the case of the other by-the-hour service, you don't pay people to be friends with you, you pay them to go away. Real friendships are a lot of work that not everyone is willing to invest in every instance. Imagine that you have a family and a busy job, but you are away on a business function for two weeks. Wouldn't you want someone to show you around town without having to talk about work or promising to call later? I know most slashdot readers are not in this position, but wouldn't you want to earn enough pocket money to buy a new laptop while spending time with successful professionals that you seek to emulate?
I originally moderated you up, but I think it's important to say: Move out! Get a job (I know, not always easy, especially now), and move out on your own. Your personal wellbeing and self esteem will likely be much improved. You don't need to go out and live a life of debauchery, but you can sit there a few times a year and say, "you know, I think I'll have beer|scotch|brownies".
The exception would be if you're living the life of Bertie Wooster, and have to behave in order to get a massive inheritance. In that case... who knows. =) I'm genuinely curious why you feel you have to follow your mother's restrictive lifestyle. Part of being a mature adult is respecting that not everyone feels the same way you do.
On the flip side, if you've never had booze or been to a bar, you may find that you don't enjoy them when you DO try it. There's no harm in that -- but then you'll avoid them by choice, not because you feel you are kept from them by someone else.
Dude, I'm an aspie. I have about as much savvy and finesse for social occasions as my cat has for scuba diving.
But what's being proposed here doesn't boil down to "go pick up a super-model in a bar", nor even something as radical as finding someone you can live with all day long for a marriage, but basically to "there must be other people at your age and with the same interests." Since you tried and failed, exactly what _was_ the problem? No, seriously, I'm curious.
As I've been saying before, there are literally thousands of retired seniors in any town worth that name. Some hundreds to thousands of them profess being terminally lonely and badly in need to talk to someone. The OP even basically proposes to pay for someone to talk to.
Exactly what _is_ the great impediment that prevents all this pool of people who badly want to talk to someone, from talking to each other?
I mean, really. You want to talk to someone. They want to talk to someone. Some even desperately. I'm obviously missing something, because to me it sounds like the problem is its own solution. Surely if you're that badly in need of social interaction, you can tolerate another willing interlocutor for an hour or two even if their personality isn't exactly bride/groom class. What _is_ preventing it?
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.